LG drops Beat, a five-inch G3 for the masses

LG has launched the LG G3 Beat, a slightly smaller sibling to its 5.5-inch G3 that trims back some of the bar-raising specs found in its flagship.

Anyone looking for something smaller, less powerful, and likely cheaper than the G3, but with a larger display than Samsung's Galaxy S5 mini, might consider lookoing at LG's new Beat G3, which will be rolled out globally following its South Korean debut on Friday.

The G3 Beat doesn't have the standout resolution of the G3, but the five-inch HD IPS display is still reasonable at 1280x720 pixels, on a par with the S5 mini. However, the Beat's larger display has a slightly lower pixel density than its Samsung rival.

LG has also traded in the G3's 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 processor for the slower 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400 version, and pared back the camera from a 13-megapixel sensor to an eight-megapixel one.

The Beat, which weighs in at 134 grams on a 137.7mm by 69.6mm by 10.3mm body, includes 8GB of onboard storage, 1GB of RAM and has an additional MicroSD slot. The smartphone comes with a 2,540mAh removable battery.

As with most new devices in its class, including the new HTC One Mini 2, the device will ship with Android 4.4.2 KitKat and comes with 4G support.

One element LG has kept from the G3 is its slim bezels, giving the Beat a 74.1 percent screen-to-body ratio. It also kept the "laser focus" camera feature that landed in the G3. As the name suggests, it uses a laser beam to measure the distance between the subject and the camera.

Other features to improve the device's ease of use as a camera and communications tool include touch and shoot, which cuts out the need press a separate button when focusing before shooting. Meanwhile, "gesture shot" lets the user clench their hand in front of the screen to start a three-second countdown before snapping a pic. The device also comes with LG's smart keyboard.

There's no mention of its Knock Code phone unlock feature or its signature hardware buttons on the backplate, however presumably these features will also be there.

The device also ships in fewer colours than the G3, with the Beat available in black, white and gold.

LG says the device will be available in Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries a few weeks after its launch in South Korea today.